from 217 miles east of the San Francisco Marina

Nancy Johnson and Richard Grefrath added to Pam Bodenhamer and Martin Schuster’s reader notes from a couple of past columns. Note: click on Santa’s house below to get to the Washoe Med recipe column ~ I’m still updating them

Adding some letters from Nancy Johnson and I received some feedback about the Christmas decoration column and have asked the e-mail writers for permission to post, and received frp, these friends, Martin Schuster, Pam Bodenhamer, Nancy Johnson, and Richard Grefrath. Pam’s a childhood friend of mine who’s family owned the drive-in on W. Fourth Street. Enjoy! BTW I made the Santa house pictured above from a refrigerator packing box for a bunch of school kids, 30 years ago!

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From Nancy Johnson:

Hi ! Every one of your columns inspires me to write to you about something, some place, or someone, but the procrastinator gnome stops me & I put it off another day! So here it is almost the end of the year – aaarrrggghhh – where do they go ?!

Reno Hot Springs: What a great place to go swimming. Another classmate, now deceased, I’m sure, was Jerry Chickese, whose parents ran/managed/or worked there. Never did figure it out.

John Iratcabal: Another old friend & classmate, makes a wicked picon! Nice visit with him at our summer old-timers Manogue reunion. We keep in touch. Great guy!

Fred Fletcher: Didn’t know him, since I worked for SPPC before his time, when Frank Tracy & Secretary, Pinky Bruce were in charge. Also H.P.Dayton, Roy Torvinen, Joe McKibben, & many others were there at the same time. Corner of Ryland & Virginia. Was there when the gas line exploded on Sierra St. (I thought it was the Russians)

Jerry Felesina: Great friend & classmate – he & Rex have gone rock hounding. We see him regularly when a bunch of us from St. Thomas & Manogue meet for lunch. Next one is December 11, at B.J.’s.

Lastly – Grandson, Donovan Inskip, is current president of Sigma Nu.

Another time I will send a picture to you to ask if you remember the “Living Pictures” at the Century Club.It was in back of my alma mater, St. Thomas Aquinas, & I was in it one year. But as you say, that’s another column!

I’ve bent your ear, strained your eyes, & I’ve said everything that’s been building up from reading your wonderful columns, which never fail to initiate memories & nostalgia. Now you can file in the round basket & I can forget about it until your next column.

Hope all is well with you & yours & have a great Christmas !

nancy

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From Richard Grefrath: Good morning Karl,

I continue to find your witty columns so delightfully informative that I hesitate to single out one in particular, but your piece on the Food Shop brought back pleasant memories.

When we moved here in 1978 we adored Reno from the very beginning, but did find it lacking in a few aspects of note for displaced East Coast immigrants. You couldn’t get a decent bagel, there was no fish sold in the supermarket (just flounder/sole, if you were lucky – we had to travel to a specialty store – Blue Bounty – to buy fish), there were no ATMs (indeed, I had a faculty colleague who was fond of saying “I’ll never get money out of a wall,” who cashed checks for pocket money at the Coney Island), nobody drank coffee with cream and sugar so there was never any on the table in a restaurant (I have a theory called the Wagon Train Hypothesis which explains this), and so on.

Most significantly, the only place that The New York Times was available for purchase of which I was aware was the Food Shop, and a vending machine at the corner of Virginia and First, in front of the bank building. There was no home delivery of The New York Times at all. So while I never purchased food nor liquor at what we called “The Food & Liquor Store” (since that was the only sign outside which seemed to identify the establishment – no “Bob’s Market” or anything like that), I did swing by many times, especially on Sunday, to snag The New York Times. They also had an impressive selection of out-of-town papers too, including the L.A. Times and the Chicago Tribune. This was all before Barnes & Noble.

Now we have The New York Times delivered 7 days a week. We sometimes look askance at progress, but that to us was a big improvement!

Keep up those wonderful columns, Karl. You are a true local treasure. [Awwwww….KB]

Richard

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From Martin Schuster: Hi Karl,

Thanks for bringing up the Christmas Home Decorating Contest. It was

in the moth ball section of my brain.

In about 1962-63-64 era, my mother built angels and candles and maybe

a Santa Claus or two for the contest. She started with bare chicken wire

and built the skeleton and then layered on papers soaked in a white

solution (paper mache). It was my job to paint them and install the

lights. The angel had a lighted wand and the candles a long bare bulb ,

maybe yellow in color. It was my job to install them on the nice porch

we had at 443 Roberts Street and connect the juice. The porch was elevated, so they really stood out after being attached to the wood over the porch with wires. I think there was “gold dust” on the angel also.

We ended up in the paper a couple of times as winners, but definitely not

first or second. Probably honorable mention, but I don’t remember. The

angel was probably over 3 feet high and a real pain to take down and store

in the basement, at least for a teen age punk kid.

My memory seems to tell me the area around Virginia Lake had some real nice outdoor displays and put ours to shame. But it was all in the spirit of Christmas. I don’t think that the real spirit exists today and can’t imagine someone taking the time to build displays from scratch. Heck, you can’t just say “Merry Christmas” anymore to a general audience, otherwise someone is offended. Poor progress and getting poorer each day it seems. Thank you.

Martin Schuster

I wrote Martin to thank him and get permission to use his e-mail, and got a little bonus with the OK!:

Not sure it is worthy to be on the website, but you surely can.

Haven’t thought about Uncle Happy for years. Seems he was on Channel 8 with Betty’s show in the PM.

Took my daughter to see the Mapes going down and we didn’t expect to receive all the grit that came our way. The image of it going down is burnt in memory and also the birds taking off as it blew. I’m a ’47 model and believe the Mapes also is, so it definitely hurt my feelings they took her down at age 53. I bring up Uncle Happy and the Mapes because you mentioned them today and

it jars my memory of times past, when things were simpler and more sincere.

So, keep it up!

As a side note, I won a trip to Disneyland once, selling subscriptions to the Nevada State Journal and think it might have been a National Newspaper Boy Convention.

Walt Disney gave all of us paperboys a talk about hard work and how it had helped him when he delivered papers as a boy. Probably around 1962-63 and I still have the in-house booklet the Journal used to put out. My boss was Packy Inch and he wrote about everything we did, except for seeing Walt Disney. Maybe I didn’t mention it to him either. I think another kid also won the trip, but not sure if he worked for Packy or not. As I look back, most certainly the highlight of the trip was seeingWalt Disney in person. He was on his way out and passed away in 1966. So, your article triggered a very warm feeling about seeing Walt Disney. Thanks again.

Martin

Martin, ’til I who thank you. Packy (Pat) Inch was a contemporary of mine. Here’s an e-mail from Pam Lee Bodenhamer. BTW, if you e-mail me about a column with good dope like Martins and Pam’s give me permission to use it on this web! KB

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From Pam Bodenhamer: Hi Karl~

Oh boy did you hit home with me regarding the Santa and sleigh atop the roof at 753 Arlington.

We used to go to Gardnerville for Christmas Eve with the Hussmans at their beautiful old ranch house. It was a special place because Santa visited EVERY house in the town and had a present for every child! We’d sing carols around their upright piano waiting for Santa’s magical arrival.

In 1950 or ’51 when driving home from Gardnerville, I fell asleep in the back seat and woke up as we passed Santa atop the roof at 753 Arlington ~ I was absolutely positive I saw him land!

Every Christmas thereafter I’d hope to see him land, but he was already there. The whole event is still vivid in my memory.

Remember how “over the top” the Stillian display on Hunter Lake seemed? People would whisper “What were they thinking???” At the time, it was pretty amazing.

Oh, we grew up during such a wondrous, innocent time of prosperity and happiness here in Reno.

Thank you for having the memory and words to remind us of our wonderful childhoods.

Thanks & take care,

Pam Lee Bodenhamer

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2 thoughts on “Nancy Johnson and Richard Grefrath added to Pam Bodenhamer and Martin Schuster’s reader notes from a couple of past columns. Note: click on Santa’s house below to get to the Washoe Med recipe column ~ I’m still updating them”

Hi Karl, I tried to leave a message earlier. I’m not sure if it went through or not; My computer was lugging down and I had to reboot, so I don’t think it did. I’ll try to remember what I wrote…I mean it was two or three hours ago! I commented on the decorating contest and the replies you printed…so fun to read. Yes, they brought up a lovely nostalgic feeling, like most of your columns do. I was also going to suggest that ‘they’ reprint that old WMC recipe book. I for one would buy one, just to have, like an heirloom. I guess it would have to be reproduced from an old one, right, if there are any still in one piece.
And maybe we should try to get together for an afternoon glass of holiday wine…keep in touch, okay?
Phyllis

Phyllis, I’m giving some thought to coőrdinate re-publishing that cookbook, as a benefit for the hospital auxiliary. I’ll show you the copy I have over a fine glass of Merlot of some good vintage, September, for example! KB